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RAW RAW on 01/31/2000 featured the WWF debuts of Dean Malenko, Eddy
Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Chris Benoit (who actually had worked a
try-out match for the promotion years ago, but wasn't signed up). I
receive a lot of e-mail from people asking me why I bother to watch
RAW and Nitro, given that in 1999 I found so little great wrestling in
those promotions. Well, besides the fact that watching X-Pac, the
Hardyz, and D'Lo among others is usually really entertaining even
though the matches aren't great, here was a great reason to be
interested in watching the Monday night wrestling shows. How would the
WWF debut these guys? How would WCW handle their latest bout of
incompetence?
The show opened with the New Age Outlaws coming out to defend their
titles against Steve Blackman & Al Snow. Rather quickly they showed
Malenko, Benoit, Guerrero, and Saturn sitting in the front row at
ringside, with Jim Ross telling us that they had not signed contracts
with the WWF. Match was a throwaway, as they kept showing the former
WCW wrestlers in the crowd, calling them rogues, radicals, and rebels.
Bingo, Road Dogg was thrown right into their laps, Dogg threw a blow,
they pounded Dogg, they hopped the rail, a brawl ensued. Benoit did
the head butt off the top. It looks like they want to package them as
invading outsiders who didn't get their break in the other group. They
looked short trading blows with the heels, who needed to sell those
blows better to get them over strong. Frankly, I was a bit nervous,
because the invading outsider angle requires that the outsiders be put
over as better than the regular crew, at least at the start, in order
for it to get everybody over. This one unbalanced confrontation isn't
a measure of the promotion's intentions, but later in the show HHH was
already working to undermine the new guys, in his own inimitable way,
by mentioning how short they are. On the bright side, they didn't have
these guys debut by attacking the Dudleyz. The storyline in the show
was that the four wrestlers were Cactus Jack's guests, so he welcomed
them backstage and coached them on how to get over in the WWF.
Christian faced D-Von Dudley, with tag partners at ringside. Jim Ross'
commentary consisted of saying "Those damn Dudleyz" a million times.
They kept reminding us of how Buh Buh broke a table with his ass and
then gently placed Terri Runnels on the mat so she could be
stretchered out; well, that isn't exactly how they framed it.
Christian got the pin, but the Dudleyz then wanted to do their table
crap. The Hardy Boyz came out to attack the Dudleyz, driving them
through tables. Does anybody else get sad to see the Hardyz involved
in this non-wrestling crap? I mean, like Sabu and van Dam, they are
fun to watch because they do some entertaining spots, and Jeff does
have that "future superstar" feel to him, but it just seems like every
one of their big spots in 2000 have been garbage wrestling spots.
Backstage, the "radicals" attacked the Mean Street Posse, which just
seemed like the wrong way to go with this. They should have been
hunting down DX's locker room. They should have played up that HHH,
X-Pac, and Armstrong were all wrestlers in WCW in the past, and that
none of them were comparable to the radical four. Yet, somehow, these
DX guys have had huge success in the WWF, a situation that the
radicals plan to upstage. Instead, they were bouncing Pete Gas and
Rodney around. Next thing you know, they'll get into a three way feud
with the Posse and Kaientai.
Big Slow faced Too Cool in a handicap match. Slow's current storyline
is that he claims that the Rock's feet touched the floor first during
the Royal Rumble. Slow got his hair cut very short, sort of like Buff
Bagwell. As I look at Big Slow and type the word Buff, for some reason
I have the irresistable urge to finish the word by typing "buffet."
Too Cool got a moment's offense in, but Slow basically squashed them.
Kurt Angle faced Rock. Ooops, that's it for Angle. I guess he can lose
clean to Tazz after this match. Highlight of the match wasn't a
wrestling sequence. Now don't act surprised! The highlight was when
Kurt Angle grabbed the microphone to lament the fans not supporting
him, ending by saying that he was born five blocks from the arena. The
Rock punked him, grabbed the microphone, and said "It doesn't matter
where you were born." Predictably. which isn't bad at all, Tazz came
out to throw Angle back in the ring when he wanted to run away, with
Rock then getting the pin.
Chris Jericho faced X-Pac. Chyna and Tori were at ringside. After the
usual talking, they had a short, good match. It's weird that they
couldn't do better. I don't know what it says: (1) the promotion
doesn't really care about putting on good matches, (2) X-Pac is
overrated, or (3) Jericho is overrated. Jericho had great matches in
WCW with guys who went on to have great matches against other guys.
Maybe Jericho isn't all he seems to be. But X-Pac is broadly viewed as
the best worker in the WWF and twice now he hasn't gotten a great
match out of Jericho. I don't get it. I still think Jericho is better
than HHH or Rock, but my attitude towards him has diminished a lot
during his WWF run of no great matches. Tori used the belt on Jericho,
so X-Pac could get the pin and win the title. Maybe they'll have a PPV
match where they pull out the stops, but you just know that Chyna is
going to have be involved in it somehow, and if she's wrestling in the
match that brings it down. This was disappointing.
Cat faced Hervina in a snow pit match. They called it a lumberjill
match because the ring was surrounded with the other women. They are
saying that Mae Young is carrying Mark Henry's baby. Cat had on a bra
and thong panties. Hervina wore a snow suit and was clearly a man. It
was atrocious, of course. Hervina got the pin, and was eventually
revealed to be Harvey Wippleman. Hey, I don't get it either. The women
mauled him, with Mae Young involved and Lawler screaming that she is
pregnant.
Cactus Jack & the radicals went to see HHH & Stephanie. Here, Jack &
HHH, in the midst of their heated rivalry, talked business. This made
a lot of sense. The radicals want a chance. HHH & Stephanie said that
they would file the request. Later on, they said they didn't want to
use them and had security escort them out of te building.
Bob Holly & Crash Holly faced Viscera. Nobody cared. Hollys won.
Matt Hardy faced Buh Buh Ray Dudley, with partners at ringside.
Acolytes helped out the Dudleyz, even though in an earlier segment the
Dudleyz didn't have the cash to pay off the Acolytes. Edge & Christian
came in. It was a mess, with tables breaking so everybody will love
it.
HHH faced Kane. Well, that's what they said was going to happen. HHH
came out first, which set off the angle alarm. He called out Kane, but
Cactus' music came up. He put over the radicals and then said he was
going to kick HHH's ass. Bingo, the radicals came out. HHH was laid
out. Jack & the radicals walked off together. Well, they tried to
position them as top guys, but the big question is whether they'll put
them over strong in even matches after these four-on-one and
four-on-two run-ins.
Nitro Nitro on 01/31/2000 was another mess, as the promotion plummets
ever further into the toilet. It is so bad that I find it highly
entertaining. The show opened with footage from "earlier today," with
the NWO getting a phone call in the locker room from Kevin Nash. Nash
can't be bothered to make it to the arena (he injured his ankle and is
so dedicated that they had to do this storyline) so he placed Jarrett
in charge as "acting commissioner." Nash apparently hung up on Scott
Hall.
The NWO came to the ring. Man, does this group suck crap. To rectify
that, they announced that the Harris twins are now official members of
the NWO. The crowd ooohed and aaahed that awesome announcement. Better
yet, they don't call them Ron and Don, they call them Heavy D and Big
Ron. Jarrett announced that Sid would face Jarrett at SuperBrawl for
the WCW Title. I see buy rate. He also announced that Jarrett & the
Harris Boys would face Sid & two unnamed partners in the main event on
Nitro. As soon as the Harris twins were put in the main event,
everybody knew they could switch to RAW without missing anything. I
would expect RAW to do triple Nitro's rating during Nitro's main
event.
Bobby Heenan was replaced by Mark Madden at the commentary table.
Apparently, the decision makers thought that Madden did really good
job, which shouldn't surprise me, since I found his shtick totally
annoying and cliche-driven.
Lash LeRoux faced Evan Karagias, attacking him before Three Count
could do any singing or dancing. This was a Cruiserweight tournament
match, not that we've ever seen brackets for the tournament. The sound
guys had trouble dealing with the homophobic crowd chants. Everybody
looked really green, and the match only went two minutes or so. LeRoux
got the win.
Crowbar & David Flair faced Big Vito & Johnny the Bull. WCW keeps
pushing the depth of their tag team division, which explains why we
always see these two rather weak tag teams. This was billed as the
return title match for the former champions. They brawled outside,
with Vito taking a backdrop in the snow. Lots of spotty, crappy stuff
in te ring. Disco helped his guys win, and he actually meant to this
time.
Brian Knobs gave a wad of money to Jeff Jarrett, with Jeff agreeing to
put Fit Finlay and Lex Luger in the same ring tonight.
Booker T faced Big T. Before the match, the new Heat's lawyer/manager
told Booker that Harlem Heat owned their music and the letter "T," so
Booker would have to change both. This dragged forever. No match
actually took place. Midnight came out. Booker & Midnight tried to
punk out J. Biggs, but the New Heat came in and turned into the
expected mess.
Kidman faced the Wall. Before the match, they showed the PPV finish
where Wall pinned Kidman, guaranteeing that Kidman would get the win
back here. They really put Kidman over in the commentary, but he only
ended up winning because Vampiro came in to screw up Wall.
In the only hot segment on a sad show, Ric Flair did his first
interview since his return at Thunder last week. Gene Okerlund
interviewed him. He said nothing, but got a great a reaction. Finally,
he called out Terry Funk, who had been complaining to Arn Anderson
backstage that Flair wasn't on the team to go after the NWO. Funk
mentioned Mick Foley's book, saying that Mick said that Flair couldn't
be a pimple on Terry's ass. Flair said that Foley must not have been
watching TV for the past 27 years. It was entertaining. Funk came in
the ring. Flair laughed when he saw that Funk's shirt called Funk the
"Living Legend," with Flair taking that as an insult to him. Wouldn't
it be great (sarcasm) if their PPV match leads to Larry Zbyszko and
Bruno Sammartino running in to set up a "living legend" four corners
match?! The old men started brawling. Oh great, I guess we'll have a
PPV match that establishes the old "mutual respect" between these guys
so that they can then go after the NWO together. Jeff Jarrett decided
tha Funk & Flair would be Sid's tag partners in the main event.
Just in case there are some new fans in the WCW audience, the crack
WCW production crew put together a highlight reel of past Funk vs.
Flair moments, including Flair winning the title in 1989 before Funk
piledrove him through a table, the famous "I Quit" Clash match, and
Funk putting the plastic bag over Flair's head. All of this, with a
quiet musical score and key interview snippets overlaid. Okay, okay,
this is WCW, so they didn't do any of that. Instead, the commentators
reminded new fans that these two have a long history. In retrospect,
that is so much more effective when it comes to making fans care about
what they promoting.
Lex Luger faced Brian Knobs with Fit Finlay as the referee. Ha ha,
that Jeff Jarrett screwed Knobs. Man, don't mess with those NWO guys.
Who cared about this match? Not the live crowd. Why do they bother?
Liz & Luger killed Knobs, with Finlay walking off.
Shane Helms faced Norman Smiley, dressed in the Demon's clothes. The
image of Norman in that costume with face paint was funny, but then we
had a lame match. Smiley got the submission in short order. They are
going to kill off Helms & Moore before they can mean anything, not
that they are ready to mean anything. Demon came out with cops to get
his costume back.
Kimberly told DDP that Disco Inferno pinched her butt, so the guys had
to have a match. In short order, DDP hit the diamond cutter for the
pin.
Jeff Jarrett & Big Ron & Heavy D faced Sid & Terry Funk & Ric Flair.
Ric Flair didn't come out. Match sucked. Finally, Flair ran out,
attacking Funk! What a surprise. This melee allowed Jeff Jarrett to
guitar Sid behind the referee's back for teh surprise pin. Oh boy,
this made me want to see their PPV singles match.
Apparently, the Nitro show that had been planned had to be completely
reworked because the original version was centred around Kevin Nash
and Buff Bagwell, both of whom missed the show due to injury.
Thunder on 02/02/2000 (taped the night before) opened with highlights
from Nitro which still didn't make the events from Monday seem all
that good. They had Hulk Hogan appearing on the show, presumably to
set up his match with Lex Luger. The NWO (Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall,
Harris Boyz, Scott Steiner, and the Silicone Babes) came out at the
show open. Man, Scott Steiner's microphone work does nothing for me.
Jeff Jarrett talked about pinning Sid on Monday. Jarrett actually did
a good job of hyping the PPV, not that it is a match anybody could
want to see. Jarrett said that Sid wouldn't be defending the title
between now and the PPV. Jarrett announced that Sid would be in three
horrible matches tonight: vs. Mike Rotunda, vs. Rick Steiner, vs. the
Harris Boyz.
Screamin' Demon Norman Smiley faced the Demon. Demon wanted his
costume back. Match was horrible, with Demon removing the leather
pieces of his costume, until Norman was in his trunks. Norman
screamed. You know, Norman was getting over late in 1999, but they've
blown it. Out of nowhere, Norman hit the crossface chickenwing for the
submission. They ran off, to where we do not know.
Sid Vicious faced Mike Rotunda in a submission match. Horrible, with
Sid winning. Do they honestly think that putting Sid on in three
matches is good for the promotion?
Oh my god! They showed us the Cruiserweight tournament brackets! I
really wish they hadn't after all. As it stood at this point, Psicosis
would face Prince Iaukea in one semi-final match, while Lash LeRoux
would face the winner of the Shannon Moore vs. Shane Helms match in
the other semi-final, guaranteeing us not one state of the art great
cruiserweight match in the tournament. WCW sucks. And the poor
commentators had to push this as something outstanding. That final
first round match took place next. They did some spotty stuff, like
the Hardyz but not quite as crisply, including some high risk bumps.
Crowd catcalled the match, even though they didn't deserve it. The
match was indy style wrestling. The commentators did nothing to get
these guys over. Shannon Moore got the pin with a backslide that was
almost like a power bomb. Backstage, the first ever female
Cruiserweight champion, whose butt was angry at America, demanded the
chance to wrestle.
With cancer man Kevin Nash sidelined because of his ankle injury, WCW
brought in a new destructive force: Hulk Hogan. The commentators acted
like it was great to have Hogan back, when all I could hear was
another nail being driven into the promotion's casket. The crowd
popped for the bastard, which just shows you that I'm out of touch
with wrestling fans on every side. Teenage guys in the crowd had
Hogan's name written, one letter at a time, across their shirts. I
hated that 15 years ago and still can't relate to it now. They
announced Hogan vs. Lex Luger for the PPV. Hogan talked about the
writers turning wrestling into comedy. He said that the old farts were
going to take the wrestling business back. He put down the young guys.
Lex Luger came out to confront Hogan. Since nobody can believe that
Luger will beat Hogan at the PPV, surely this would lead to Luger
laying out Hogan in some way, right? That's the only sensible thing,
right? This being WCW, they instead decided to have Hogan chase Luger
off, establishing that Luger has no chance whatsoever at the PPV. A
Sting silhouette appeared in the entryway; it looked to be Norman
Smiley. Liz actually took the worst atomic drop ever from Hogan, which
is the first bump I remember her taking in years. Luger ran away.
Argh!
Jeff Jarrett put Oklahoma in charge of the women's division. Wall vs.
Kidman vs. Vampiro in a triangle match was next. As soon as you put
Wall in there, the whole match dies. It's like adding Chyna into Chris
Jericho's matches. Kidman & Vampiro doubled on Wall. Vampiro and
Kidman flubbed a spot where Vamp wa supposed to launch Kidman into the
air. Kidman chaired Wall a couple of times while Torrie distracted the
referee. Kidman then did Rob van Dam's stupid "I throw you the chair,
you catch it and hold it in front of your face, and I dropkick you"
spot. With Kidman dumped to the ringside floor, Wall choke slammed
Vampiro from the top rope. They pushed Wall in the commentary.
Lenny Lane & Lodi revealed their new names...Lane & Idol, with tag
name Too Excess. Rick Steiner faced Sid in a hardcore match, that
would more aptly be called a hard to watch match. They showed Sid
powerbombing Rick through the stage in 11/99. They didn't explain why,
after being stretchered out, Rick returned as part of the Varsity Club
with no concern for Sid. But, hey, this was the big feud blow off
match, right!? They went into the crowd right beside the commentary
table, with Rick suplexing Sid over the guard rail through the table.
Steiner basically pummelled Sid until the big comeback. They brawled
back to the entryway. While standing in front of the curtain that
blocked off the backstage area, both guys were hit by a baseball bat
shot from an unknown assailant. It looked like Jeff Jarrett's arm. Sid
fell on top of Steiner so he got the pin. Before we could get
concerned about the wellfare of our champion, they already went off to
a commercial.
Having collected his paycheque for the night, Hulk Hogan left the
building. Thanks for coming out. Diamond Dallas Page faced The
Machine. Machine was a juiced-up masked guy, who was given a dramatic
entrance, with flashy lighting. The commentators pushed him as a
monster; he even had pyro. Just in case he might get over, DDP beat
him in his debut match in short order. Makes me think of the Demon's
in-ring debut last week. But, hey, DDP is the Team WOW Outstanding
Wrestler of 1999, don't forget! I guess they figured that they could
take the mask of the guy and repackage him in some other way if they
decide to use him.
Holy jumping! They actually did put together a video package of Ric
Flair vs. Terry Funk highlights to hype their PPV match. It ran about
30 seconds, which will surely lead to a big bump in the buy rate for
the PPV. Arn Anderson said that what we just saw is why he became a
wrestler. Arn basically did the Rodney King interview: let's get along
and go after the NWO. It was a flashback to years back. All in all,
when I rambled about a video package to hype the Flair vs. Funk match,
I didn't expect them to do anything. In the end, they did a really sad
job with it, so might as well not have bothered.
Tank Abbott faced Villanos IV and V. Meng watched on, so I guess
Abbott vs. Meng is on for the PPV. He did two one punch knockouts.
Abbott walked off before the knockout was even official.
Terry Funk asked Arn Anderson if he wanted to be with Funk or be with
Flair; it sounded like a broken-hearted lover's plea. Arn didn't
answer. David Flair & Crowbar faced Big Vito & Johnny the Bull in a
nontitle match. Standards & Practices' Ms. Hancock came out, but
Daffney screamed at her, and she walked off. They called David Flair
"the unpredictable madman." The Mamalukes laid into Flair, who is the
worst. Vito missed in a splash in a horrible spot, since it was the
first time that Flair actually had to do something. Crowbar was tagged
in. Vito DDTed him and had him beat, but Flair used the crowbar so
that Crowbar could get the cover and the win.
The main event saw Sid face the Harris Boyz in a cage match.
Backstage, Sid had recovered from the brutal baseball bat shot earlier
on. Still, he was limping badly; that made sense given that the bat
shot was to his back. Sid is right up there with the Rock when it
comes to selling. Sid limped all the way to the ring. They attacked
him in the aisle. They brawled at ringside, walking around, all my
favourite stuff performed by three of the worst guys ever. They
finally went into the ring, with Sid climbing up the steps in to the
cage even though he was supposed being dragged in. The cage was
locked. The Harris Boyz pummelled Sid, who got in no offense. It was
so boring and bad. Sid finally rallied with clotheslines. His power
bomb attempt was cut off. With one brother crotched, Sid choke slammed
the other for the pin. Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner ran in as the cage
was raised by Scott Hall. Jarrett guitared Sid. Steiner put the
recliner on Sid. They spraypainted Sid. Jarrett cut another promo.
- WCW has SuperBrawl on 02/20/2000. Tenative line-up has
* Jeff Jarrett vs. Sid Vicious for the WCW Title
* Hulk Hogan vs. Lex Luger
* Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk
* Billy Kidman vs. Vampiro
* Meng vs. Tank Abbott
* Cruiserweight tournament final
- The WWF has No Way Out on 02/27/2000.
- I have to mention the WXO Wrestling show that has been on the air
for a few weeks now. The chance of great wrestling from this group is
slim to none, I'd venture to say. The annoyingly inexplicable bit this
past week saw them show a snippet from a match from Korakuen Hall
(which they called the Tokyo Egg Dome), featuring Johnny Ace & Bart
Gunn against Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi. For some unknown reason,
they made up fake names for the Japanese side and then said that Ace &
Gunn won the "All Japan tag titles" in this match. You'd think just
showing them in the ring with Kobashi & Akiyama in a match guaranteed
to better than anything on WWF or WCW TV that week for that reason
would be enough to get them over. Why fabricate all this crap?
- I finished reading Mick Foley's book on the weekend. Overall, as
everybody else who has read it has said, it is pretty much a must-read
for wrestling gans, particularly longtime fans or those in the know.
There's no point in talking about the numerous short tickling
anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book; you have to read it to
appreciate them. I will mention that a lot of the Japanese references
are incorrect, often just in spelling, but that's a minor point that
really just reflects that Mick's editor wasn't a puroresu fan.
Despite enjoying the book, I did come away from it with what I guess
would best be labeled a philosophical difficulty. Early on, Mick
acknowledges that it is a difficult thing to deliver memorable
matches, and, as a result, his big hope was to create memorable
moments, like Jimmy Snuka's cage superfly leap was for him. Somehow,
though, once his career was going, he routinely said he was having
good or better matches with all sorts of opponents. That just seemed
weird, largely because the focus of every match discussion was the big
bump or dangerous spot that Mick was willing to take. He romanticized
the risks he took in his matches; not only were his bumps real, but he
routinely told his opponents to hit him as hard as they could, etc.
Only once in passing does he point out that some people (in the
business) think wrestling is about making minor risks seem major, but
that comment is almost dismissive. So, I came away from the book
largely wondering about that attitudinal difference.
For a few years now, a group of net fans have praised a group of
wrestlers because they "busted their asses" and "gave so much of
themselves," both phrases to be interpreted as saying "those guys took
a hell of a legit beating." I couldn't relate to those fans, and I
found myself similarly unable to relate to Mick. Really, if you are a
fan of pro-wrestling or of a particular pro-wrestler, wouldn't you be
concerned for his welfare? I'm not talking merely about whether he
gets up after falling from the top of a cage or crashing through a
bunch of tables; I'm talking about the longterm career repercussions
of "working" that "style." Doesn't it bother you that Mick Foley has
trouble bending down to talk to his children, that he already has
trouble working with simple numbers in his head? Does it not seem just
a bit ridiculous to ignore those costs and praise him instead for
willingly "giving so much" to his fans? I don't need a guy to kill
himself to entertain me. I don't want Mistuharu Misawa to crash on his
head in the interest of taking a dramatic suplex bump; as I have
explained to people in e-mail responses, it is somehow easier to
ignore the unnecessary risk of those sorts of bumps in All Japan
because (with rare expection) the whole match isn't built around that
sort of spot and the fans aren't egging on the performers to
constantly one-up last week's insanity. That doesn't mean I don't
worry about the battered All Japan performers who work such a tough
style to begin with. I worry about Chris Benoit doing the headbutt off
the top as he does it. That's hardly as dramatic a spot as many of
Foley's signature bumps, but I don't think Chris should risk the
injury of that spot, especially from the top of a cage, and especially
given the lack of support he had from his previous promotion. I don't
want to see the WWF's Chris Benoit put into the same matches that the
Hardy Boyz have found themselves in.
Mick tells would-be wrestlers to get a college education first and
then train to be a wrestler. He expressed some concern about people
following in his footsteps, and, truthfully, he was one of the crew
that ushered in the garbage wrestling style that so dominates the
North American scene. Thanks to that style change, talented guys find
themselves crashing through tables or doing extremely dangerous spots
to get over with fans who only react to the crazy spot of the week,
which, it goes without saying, has to be crazier than the spot of last
week.
Maybe I'm a dinosaur. I respect the efforts and contributions of Ric
Flair, Bret Hart, and Chris Benoit a hell of lot more than I respect
the contributions of Mick Foley, Steve Austin, and Terry Funk. It
hurts me a bit to put Terry Funk on the latter list, so please don't
think I do it without a major touch of sadness. Mick Foley has
tremendous love for the things he does and the things he's done, but I
came away from the book realizing ever more clearly what I've always
known: those things, in the ring, anyhow, have little to do with
wrestling as I see it.
- I've finalized a table of the PPV buy rates, revenue (in millions),
and match statistics for the WWF, WCW, and ECW for 1999 (the PPV
draw(s) are listed, as well as the quality matches). You can draw your
own conclusions when it comes to comparing promotions. I'll just point
out that we were given 8 * * * * matches on PPV in all of 1999, with
the two WCW cruiserweight matches being the only matches that weren't
heavily based on garbage wrestling.
Show Data Match Rating Data
Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >=
* * * *
WWF
99/12/12: Armageddon
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Vince McMahon 0.93 $4.6 0.8 * * * 1/4
Chris Jericho vs. Chyna 0%
(0 of 10)
99/11/14: Survivor Series
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Steve Austin vs. Rock 1.14 $5.47 0.94 * * *
*
Hollys & Too Cool vs. Hardyz & Edge & Christian 0%
(0 of 9)
99/10/17: No Mercy
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Steve Austin 0.84 $4.02 2.08 * * 1/2 * * *
* 1/2
Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy vs. Edge & Christian 22%
(2 of 9)
99/09/26: Unforgiven
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Davey Boy Smith vs. Mankind vs. Rock vs.
Big Show vs. Kane 0.85 $4.07 1.03 * 1/5 * * * 1/2
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Davey Boy Smith vs. Mankind vs. Rock vs.
Big Show vs. Kane 0%
(0 of 9)
99/08/22: SummerSlam
Test vs. Shane McMahon 1.61 $7.73 1.53 * * 1/4 * * * 1/2
Mankind vs. Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley 0%
(0 of 13)
99/07/25: Fully Loaded
Steve Austin vs. Undertaker 1.4 $6.7 1.75 * * * * * 3/4
Steve Austin vs. Undertaker 0%
(0 of 9)
99/06/27: King of the Ring
Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon vs. Shane McMahon 1.13 $5.41 1 3/4 * *
1/2
Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon vs. Shane McMahon 0%
(0 of 10)
99/05/23: Over The Edge
Steve Austin vs. Undertaker 1.1 $5.28 Owen Hart dies
99/04/25: Backlash
Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 1.06 $5.09 2.28 * * 1/4 * * * * 1/4
Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 12.5%
(1 of 8)
99/03/28: WrestleMania
Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 2.3 $12.04 1.13 * 1/4 * * * 1/2
Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0%
(0 of 9, no shoot)
99/02/14: St. Valentine's Day Massacre
Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon
Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 1.2 $5.33 1.28 * 1/4 * * * 3/4
Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0%
(0 of 8)
99/01/24: Royal Rumble
Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia
Royal Rumble 1.57 $6.97 1.83 * 1/2 * * * 3/4
Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia 0.0%
(0 of 6)
Last 6 1.13 $5.43 1.42 1.71 3.42 3.4%
(2 of 59)
1999 1.26 $6.06 1.43 1.57 3.48 3.0%
(3 of 100)
1998 1.02 $4.42 1.60 1.63 3.65 4.0%
(4 of 101)
Show Data Match Rating Data
Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >=
* * * *
WCW
99/12/19: Starrcade
Bret Hart vs. Bill Goldberg 0.32 1.54 1 * * * * *
Chris Benoit vs. Jeff Jarrett 0%
(0 of 13)
99/11/21: Mayhem
WCW Title tournament
Bill Goldberg vs. Sid 0.45 2.16 0.6 3/4 * * * 1/2
Chris Benoit vs. Jeff Jarrett 0%
(0 of 12)
99/10/12: Halloween Havoc
Hulk Hogan vs. Sting 0.52 2.49 1.42 * 1/4 * * *
Eddie Guerrero vs. Perry Saturn 0%
(0 of 9)
99/09/12: Fall Brawl
Kevin Nash & Sting vs. Randy Savage & Sid Vicious 0.33 1.58 1.58 3/4*
* * * 3/4
Lenny Lane vs. Kaz Hayashi 0%
(0 of 9)
99/08/14: Road Wild
Kevin Nash & Sting vs. Randy Savage & Sid Vicious 0.54 2.59 1.25 * 1/4
* * * 1/4
Chris Benoit vs. Diamond Dallas Page 0%
(0 of 9)
99/07/11: Bash at the Beach
Kevin Nash & Sting vs. Randy Savage & Sid Vicious 0.41 1.95 0.75 1/2*
* * * 1/2
Chris Benoit & Saturn vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon & Bam Bam
Bigelow 0%
(0 of 7)
99/06/13: Great American Bash
Kevin Nash vs. Randy Savage 0.43 2.05 0.75 3/4* * * * 1/4
Chris Benoit & Saturn vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon 0%
(0 of 9)
99/05/09: Slamboree
Kevin Nash vs. Diamond Dallas Page 0.45 2.15 1.75 * * * * * 1/4
Raven & Saturn vs. Rey Misterio Jr. & Konnan vs. Chris Benoit & Dean
Malenko 0%
(0 of 9)
99/04/11: Spring Stampede
Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sting 0.6 2.86
2.31 * * 1/2 * * * * 1/4
Juventud Guerrera vs. Blitzkrieg 11.1%
(1 of 9)
99/03/14: Uncensored
Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan 0.73 $3.48 1.83 * * * * * 1/2
Billy Kidman vs. Mikey Whippreck 0%
(0 of 9)
99/02/21: SuperBrawl
Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan 1.1 $5.27 1.89 * * 1/2 * * * 1/4
Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Kevin Nash
Scott Steiner vs. Diamond Dallas Page 0%
(0 of 9)
99/01/17: Souled Out
Bill Goldberg vs. Scott Hall
Ric Flair & David Flair vs. Curt Hennig & Barry Windham 0.78 $3.64
1.83 * 1/2 * * * *
Billy Kidman vs. Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Psicosis
11.1%
(1 of 9)
Last 6 0.42 $2.02 1.15 1.77 3.5 1.7%
(1 of 59)
1999 0.55 $2.63 1.43 1.40 3.54 2.7%
(3 of 113)
1998 0.93 $3.96 1.54 1.73 3.73 4.5%
(5 of 111)
Show Data Match Rating Data
Show Details Buy Rate Gross Mean Median Peak % >=
* * * *
ECW
99/11/07: November to Remember
Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome 0.2 $0.42 2.125 * 1/4 * * * * 1/4
Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka 12.5%
(1 of 8)
99/09/19: Anarchy Rulz
Masato Tanaka vs. Taz 0.2 $0.42 1.875 * * * 1/4 * * * 3/4
Mike Awesome vs. Taz vs. Masato Tanaka 0.0%
(0 of 8)
99/07/18: Heatwave
Taz vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri
Rob van Dam & Jerry Lynn vs. Lance Storm & Justin Credible 0.2 $0.42
2.125 * * 1/4 * * * 3/4
Rob van Dam & Jerry Lynn vs Lance Storm & Justin Credible 0.0%
(0 of 6)
99/05/16: Hardcore Heaven
0.2 $0.42 1.75 * * 3/4 * * * * 1/4
Rob van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn 12.5%
(1 of 8)
99/03/21: Living Dangerously
Taz vs. Sabu 0.2 $0.42 1.53 * * * * 1/2
Rob van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn
Taz vs. Sabu 0.0%
(0 of 8)
99/01/10: Guilty As Charged
Shane Douglas vs. Taz 0.2 $0.42 1.68 * * 1/2 * * * 1/2
Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Super Crazy 0.0%
(0 of 7)
Last 6 0.2 $0.42 2.03 2.25 3.92 4.5%
(1 of 22)
1999 0.2 $0.42 1.84 2.17 3.83 4.4%
(2 of 45)
1998 0.23 $0.43 1.56 1.5 3.00 3.7%
(1 of 27)
Longer-term data is available.
- The WWF has WrestleMania on 04/02/2000.
- The WWF has Backlash on 04/30/2000.
- The WWF has Judgment Day on 05/21/2000.
- The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/25/2000.
- The WWF has Fully Loaded on 07/23/2000.
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